AS chairman of governors at Tottington High School I feel duty bound to write regarding transfer to high schools.

In March this year, 625 parents chose Tottington High School as their school of preference. Due to the LEA admission rules, many parents did not go to appeal, accepting instead the school offered by the LEA while fearing that they would lose out if they did not accept.

Tottington High School, which has just received specialist maths and computing status and had 64 per cent of five or more A*-C grades at GCSE, is one of the best schools in the borough. This is backed up by the fact that more parents preferred Tottington to any other borough school.

Imagine my fury when I was informed by the headteacher that the school opened in September with 180 students instead of 190, leaving 10 spaces in Year Seven -- a situation never before encountered.

The school is running under capacity and consequently children and parents who chose it as a preference have been denied the place they wanted. This cannot be fair!

My advice is that if you want to send your child to Tottington High School this year telephone the school to take up the spare places.

WILLIAM JOHNSON MBE